


Down If You Are

by YancyPants



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Crushes, Fluff, M/M, Mild Angst, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Not Beta Read, Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-28
Updated: 2016-03-28
Packaged: 2018-05-29 19:02:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6389374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YancyPants/pseuds/YancyPants
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cisco Ramon has a bit of a crush on Barry Allen. Plain simple and easy enough to ignore...until Barry decides to confront Cisco about his strange behavior as of late at the behest of one Caitlin Snow. The conversation is not exactly what Cisco expects it to be but that's okay. He can roll with punches, more or less. Leaning closer toward less, but he does his best and that's what's important.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Down If You Are

**Author's Note:**

> This is me biding my time until I can see season 2. I think I'll just continue to do that with ficlets that are totally self-indulgent but hopefully enjoyable.

At first Cisco doesn’t really understand why Barry waited forever to tell Iris about his feelings for her. Sure, he knows Iris is hot, like super hot, the kind of hot that makes you want to dress in a three piece suit every day just to impress her. And of course, after sort of getting to know her, Cisco understands that while she doesn’t have a mind for science she certainly has intelligence enough to challenge anyone at S.T.A.R. Labs given the right subject matter, with the skills to win any debate hands down. So yeah, hot, smart, and kind, he’d found that last one out while she was visiting Barry in his coma.

The woman’s a triple threat to the heart. Barry’s specifically.

And for a while Cisco just kind of rolls his eyes at how difficult it was for Barry to tell Iris how he felt because the guy’s nothing to sneeze at himself. Kind, almost to the point of being disarming in that charm the pants off anyone kind of manner. Smart, he's a crime scene investigator so that’s a no-brainer. And hot enough to be just as attractive as Iris. Three piece suit already included.

They’d be the perfect couple if they could manage to get together.

And Cisco has to take pause when that thought irks him. Best way to explain is anytime he thinks of Barry and Iris as a couple he gets this pain in his gut that isn’t a tangible feeling. Well he feels it but not physically per se, more like emotionally. It’s the kind of feeling that makes him scrunch his face and furrow his brow due to the general discomfort of it. And it’s not because he dislikes either of them. Far from that. Iris is one of the most entertaining people to talk to when she’s not angry. And Barry. Well, Barry’s the best friend Cisco’s had in a long time. A friend that lets him run at the mouth about everything and nothing. A friend that trusts him to save his ass in tight situations propagated by metahumans. A friend the Cisco has fallen head over heels in love with.

The moment he figures that out is the moment that he understands why Barry kept his feelings hidden from Iris. Because Cisco does the same damn thing. His day is always ten times better when Barry stands next to him, but he never says it aloud, that would be the definition of creepy. The room definitely seems brighter when Barry smiles. Cisco refuses to say that too. And whenever his heart starts beating hard and loud enough for him to hear it without technological aid, Cisco counts himself lucky that Barry got super speed instead of super hearing.

In all his years of having crush after crush, Cisco never knew they could be so, crushing comes to mind but that’s in the name. Yet he can’t find anything else that fits. Barry starts talking about Iris and Cisco might as well be stuck under a giant’s boot that’s how hard he’s crushing on the speedster. And then when Barry starts dating Linda to get back out there Cisco wants to slam his face into as many walls as he can in the span of four minutes because that’s how long Barry talks to him about how wonderful Linda is. And then they break up and Cisco sees a brief window of opportunity that’s slammed shut because Iris West what else? Back under the giant’s boot for Cisco.

It’s completely nonsensical.

So whenever Barry asks him if he’s okay, apparently he has an issue with keeping his emotions off his face, Cisco replies with the classics: “I’m fine man, just feel a killer headache coming on.” Or, “Yeah it’s cool. I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night so I’m kind of out of it, ya know?” And “Yeah no, I’m good!” when he gets tired of thinking of excuses. All of which are followed by him biting his bottom lip in an attempt to keep from spilling the truth when Barry’s gaze lingers on him. Yeah obviously Barry never believes him but he also never pushes so Cisco treats the whole debacle like a non-issue. He’ll deal with it when it becomes a real problem. Later. Much much later. Or never. Never’s good.

Except never is a long time and someone, who should change her name to I’m-Gonna-Stick-My-Nose-In-Your-Business-Until-You-Deal-With-Your-Feelings Snow, can’t wait that long. Cisco vows to make Caitlin’s life a living hell when Barry confronts him at her insistence.

“Uh hey Cisco? Caitlin said you have something to tell me,” Barry says on one infuriatingly slow day. Where are the rampaging metahumans when Cisco needs them?

“Mm nope. Nothing comes to mind,” Cisco replies and pulls a lollipop out of his pocket so that he can slam it in his mouth before he says anything else.

“She was really pushy about me talking to you.”

“That’s because she's a certified busybody,” Cisco says around his candy. He’s gotten really good at avoiding Barry’s eye contact by focusing on whatever’s in front of him, in this case the computer screen that still refuses to alert him to the presence of a city crisis that would get him out of this conversation. It’s understandably jarring to see the screen disappear faster than he can blink when Barry spins him around in his chair.

Cisco pulls the lollipop from his mouth and points it at Barry. “Unnecessary.”

“Cisco just tell me what’s going on. You’ve been acting strange for weeks now.”

“Really?”

Barry pauses. “I asked Caitlin if you were dying because you’ve been crazy distant and I couldn’t think of anything else that it could be.”

Cisco scrunches his face. That’s a really weird thought to jump to just because he’s been distant. And he’s certain it really hasn’t been that bad. He still talks to Barry and jokes around with him, with a little less touching sure but that’s more because he has a tendency to linger when he cares for people and he doesn’t want to creep Barry out.

“Did I do something?”

He’ll have to check with Captain Singh but Cisco’s almost certain the quiver in Barry’s voice is illegal. If not then it is most definitely unfair. Cisco’s the one going through the whole unrequited love bullshit. By his own volition yes, but that doesn’t mean Barry gets to take the spotlight here. Time to bite the bullet and say something to get Barry to leave him alone.

“No. It’s just,” Cisco sighs. He could tell him right now. He could say that he has a crush and end the frustration of keeping all these emotions bottled up inside. Just a few words and it would be over. There’s no guarantee that Barry will reciprocate though and that’s what stops him. Barry’s friendship is worth too much to make it awkward with the one-sided love aspect added to it. He goes for thinking up another excuse instead when Barry says something to throw him off his train of thought.

“You can tell me anything, you know that right, Cisco?”

“Like the fact that I have a crush on you?” And there it is. Out in the open. The words tumble out of Cisco’s mouth before he has a chance to stop them. Dammit he should’ve kept the lollipop in his mouth. Barry caught him off guard. For a moment Cisco thinks that maybe he can play it off as a joke.

Cisco goes to diffuse the situation but when Barry’s eyes go wide in shock Cisco wants to scream. No joking at this point, it’s far too late to recover from this. As bad as the feeling of a crush is the intense worry in gut is far worse than anything he’s felt recently. And it only gets worse when Barry speeds away from him leaving his papers strewn about and his hair all over his head and in his face. 

For one terrible minute Cisco just sits there wishing that he could go back and stop himself from being an idiot. He has just enough time to mumble a fair amount of chastising words to himself a few times before Barry is standing in front of him again panting and grinning.

Barry's grinning. At Cisco. After having just runaway at super speed. This has to be the strangest rejection Cisco's ever had to deal with in his life.

“Wow Barry, way to let a guy down easy.” Cisco flips his chair back to face the computer monitor.  It's a miracle that he hasn't gotten up to leave himself given how much he wants to runaway from the man behind him. Not that he'd get very far but a dude's gotta try...hypothetically anyway, since Cisco's still in his chair.

“Good thing I'm not letting you down then.”

Cisco squints. “Say that again?”

“Only if you look at me, Cisco.”

Slowly, Cisco turns his head to look over his shoulder, still squinting, to look at Barry. He's presented with a smile that still manages to brighten the room even though the entire situation is like his nightmares personified.

“I'm not rejecting you, Cisco.”

That can't be true. “Why not?”

Barry's face twists a little like he's tasted something bitter. His thinking face is strange. “You know how you have those people that you'd go out with if they asked? You're not necessarily pining over them but it's a mutual ‘I'm down if you're down’ type of situation?” Barry continues after Cisco turns to face him again and nods. “Well,” he shrugs and smiles slowly. “I'm down if you're down.”

Oh Cisco’s so down it’s almost pathetic. Amendment. It's beyond pathetic. And what's worse is Barry's still standing there with the biggest grin on his face like he didn't just shrug his way into asking Cisco out on a date. Speaking of which.

“Did you just ask me out?” At this point Cisco's so confused that he needs verbal confirmation before he can move forward with the conversation.

Barry nods.

“For real?”

“Yes Cisco,” Barry chuckles. “I'm asking you out. On a date. Maybe dinner tonight at seven?”

Okay seriously? Cisco feels like he's missed something. He hasn't really gotten over being embarrassed about blabbing his feelings for the speedster. And he's also curious about something. Well someone more accurately.

“What about Iris?” Way to look a gift horse in the mouth Ramon. He's got a golden opportunity to go out with the man and he's busy worrying about his crush’s crush. Brilliant.

“She's with Eddie and doesn't have feelings for me so I need to move on. And I mean, I thought that maybe you liked me a while ago, but then you started keeping to yourself so I thought it had to be something else and I didn't want to be pushy. Am I being too pushy now, asking you out already? You didn't really mean to tell me about your crush and I don't want to go too fast or make you think I'm using you to get over Iris because I'm not! I like you Cisco. I just didn't know how to say it and I thought you just wanted to be bros so I didn't-

“You know it never occurred to me that super speed would give you the ability to sound like Alvin and the Chipmunks,” Cisco cuts in with a giddy laugh.

Barry blinks. “What?”

“You didn't hear yourself? That is fastest I've heard anyone talk ever!” Barry looks frantic, probably because Cisco's skirting the whole ‘date me’ thing so Cisco moves on waving his hand and lollipop in a blasé manner. “Nevermind. Doesn't matter. No you're not being pushy and I totally want to go out it just took a minute for it register that you want to...date me?”

“Why do you sound so surprised?”

“I don't think you've ever heard yourself talk about Iris. It's hard to think you can compete with the love of someone's life.” Then Cisco remembers a few minutes prior to their conversation. “Also you literally disappeared after I told you I had a crush on you and I got a little worried.”

At least Barry has the decency to look apologetic at Cisco's observation. He grimaces a bit and rubs the back of his neck. “Sorry. I had to, uh, pull myself together after your confession. It caught me off guard and I needed to calm down so that I didn't make a fool of myself. Though I guess sounding like the leader of a rodent boy band is kinda foolish, isn't it?”

“Yeah it kind of is,” Cisco says as a grin spreads across his face. “And don’t be sorry, I understand...I think,” He pauses and looks at Barry with a smirk then shoves his lollipop in the corner if his mouth. “So...what’s this about dinner?”

Barry smiles and Cisco swears he'll have to invest in sunglasses if this keeps up. But he smiles too because he's got a date with Barry Allen and who the hell wouldn't smile about that?


End file.
